


I would choose you

by S_Horne



Series: Stony September AUs [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Insecure Tony Stark, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 04:16:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15964514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_Horne/pseuds/S_Horne
Summary: “I was never in love with her. Besides, you’re my soulmate.”Tony scoffed so loudly that Steve actually moved back in shock. “What does that mean?”“It means that I love you,” Steve answered Tony’s theoretical question.“No, it doesn’t. What it does mean is that the universe decided we should be together. It doesn’t mean that you chose me or even that you can’t love someone else.”“Tony…” Steve seemed lost for words and Tony sighed, just about managing to refrain from rolling his eyes as he really tried not to cry. Here it came. The rejection. The admittance that it had all been a lie, just like Tony had suspected.





	I would choose you

**Author's Note:**

> 11\. Soulmates
> 
> I want to give you full-length fics, so stick around as they get longer?

“Do you love her?”

Steve’s mouth fell open and he stared at Tony in shock. Tony couldn’t really blame him, to be honest. They had been enjoying a quiet cup of coffee in a cute little café near Tony’s office when Tony had just blurted out the sharp question, completely out of the blue. But he needed to know.

Steve swallowed with a little cough and shook his head. “What kind of a question is that?”

“One I would like to know the answer to,” Tony said calmly. He was surprised at how level his voice was, how in control he sounded as his palms sweated and the blood rushed in his ears. He tried not to focus on the fact that Steve had avoided giving him an answer.

“No,” Steve said, eyes wide and imploring. He carefully set down his mug and stretched his hand out across the table towards Tony. “No, I’m not in love with her.”

“You used to be.”

Steve spluttered for a few seconds and held up his hands in surrender. “No, I didn’t,” he finally said. He furrowed his brow and held Tony’s gaze. “I was never in love with her. Besides, you’re my soulmate.”

Tony scoffed so loudly that Steve actually moved back in shock. “What does that mean?”

“It means that I love _you_ ,” Steve answered Tony’s theoretical question.

“No, it doesn’t. What it does mean is that the universe decided we should be together. It doesn’t mean that you chose me or even that you can’t love someone else.”

“Tony…” Steve seemed lost for words and Tony sighed, just about managing to refrain from rolling his eyes as he really tried not to cry. Here it came. The rejection. The admittance that it had all been a lie, just like Tony had suspected.

Steve was going to leave him and run off with her. Run off with anyone, really. Anyone that wasn’t Tony. Because soulmates were bull and fate couldn’t just _make_ you fall in love. Never mind if _he_ was in love or not, there was no way that Steve felt the same. He was just too nice of a guy to tell Tony that without prompting. So Tony was doing it for him. He was being the bigger person and giving Steve an out.

“Tony, it – I _do_ love you. I don’t care about marks or fate or the universe. I don’t care about soulmates – I only care about them because they gave me you. You are the one that I love; not her, not anyone else.”

Tony’s mouth fell open as he stared at Steve, completely unblinking. That wasn’t what Steve was meant to say, was it? He was meant to agree that soulmarks were stupid and that he didn’t love Tony. There was no way that he could, right? How could the universe decide who to pair up? There were billions of people in the universe, so many more who would be perfect for Steve rather than _Tony_.

“Yes, you’re my soulmate, but I love you because you make me laugh. You make me want to be a better person. The way that you always look out for everyone else, always making sure that we’re all okay.”

What? And that wasn’t right either. _Steve_ was the one that made people want to be better and the guy who held their friends together. Not Tony. Steve was the one who had Tony in stitches with a single story, or who could make his day so much lighter with a mere wink.

“I love the way that your nose does this little scrunch whenever you smell your first coffee of the day and how you always crack your knuckles in the same order. It’s the specks of grey in your beard and the laughter lines around your eyes that make me weak in the knees.”

Okay, now Tony was seriously confused. This wasn’t _right._ Steve wasn’t supposed to be saying these things. It was Tony that felt that; Tony who noticed all of the little things about Steve, like the fact that he always ate his meal from the left side of his plate to the right, and that he never took the packet of food that was at the front of the shelf. It was Tony that felt the rush of love whenever Steve so much as smiled his way or that total wave of calm as soon as their fingers touched.

Tony was the one who was so ridiculously in love with everything that Steve was and Tony was the one that wanted this to work more than anything he had ever wanted in his life.

“I don’t love you because I have to, Tony,” Steve continued, his voice as soft as a gentle breeze and his smile as warm as the sun, “I love you because I _want_ to. I love you because I need to; because I can’t help but want you with every breath I take. It’s not out of some sort of obligation to the universe and I’m not trying to cover up that I’m in love with someone else. Believe me, Tony, or don’t, but I will spend every day trying to prove myself to you.”

Wow. Tony made a sort of choking noise and that was, embarrassingly enough, as much as his voice would let him do. He reached out insanely slowly, as though terrified that Steve would snatch his hand away at the last second before their fingers could connect. When Steve stayed perfectly still, Tony hesitantly touched their fingers together, moving to interlock them when Steve smiled. Even that touch sent a shiver down Tony’s spine.

For all the time that they had been together, Tony still didn’t believe it was real. He had been told enough times that no one could ever love him and been burnt enough in the past to believe it was true.

His soulmark tingled when Steve squeezed his hand and he finally let himself consider the possibility that maybe it was true.

Maybe he really could have this.

Maybe he _did_ have this.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again for your support. 
> 
> [I have a tumblr](http://s-horne.tumblr.com/)


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